All Course Descriptions

An honors program for students who prepare for and compete in national advocacy. Travel/Registration Fees required. (B) Black Law Students Association; (C) Client Counseling; (D) Hispanic Bar Association; (E) Environmental Law; (H) Native American; (J) Jessup International; (K) International Environmental Law; (M) Intellectual Property; (N) Labor; (O) Other. Repeatable one time. CR/NC only. Pre: selection by competition.

A survey of human rights norms, institutions, and implementation mechanism of international human rights law in light of the rapid development of regional cooperation and integration in Asia.

A brief overview of historical development of immigration law; analysis of exclusion and deportation grounds and remedies, as well as the study of the legal immigration system of both immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applications and petitions. The course also covers the current law on asylum and refugee applications and US citizenship and naturalization requirements.

An interactive course addressing important topical ethical issues in areas in cluding the corporate, entertainment, medical, legal, political, education, and sports worlds. Renowned knowledgeable guests will discuss critical issues in their respective fields through panel conversations.

An honors program for students who prepare for and compete in national advocacy. Travel/Registration Fees required. (B) Black Law Students Association; (C) Client Counseling; (D) Hispanic Bar Association; (E) Environmental Law; (H) Native American; (J) Jessup International; (K) International Environmental Law; (M) Intellectual Property; (N) Labor; (O) Other. Repeatable one time. CR/NC only. Pre: selection by competition.

An examination of the law, rules, and practices relating to transborder commercial transactions. Roughly half of the semester focuses on international sales transactions, the remaining portion focuses on domestic and multinational governance of the international business arena. Our textbook uses a problem-oriented approach aiming towards consideration of practical aspects of doing business in an international context.

This seminar will concisely examine three global areas of public regulation over cross-border transactions and firm operations – world trade law, international foreign investment law, and international financial law – which increasingly comprise the new areas of domestic and transnational legal practice. 

Students will gain functional knowledge of: 1) the architecture of the trade law regime and its centralized dispute settlement mechanism at the World Trade Organization; 2) the international investment law regime and its diffuse investor-State dispute settlement mechanisms, such as investor-State arbitration at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), international adjudication at the International Court of Justice, as well as dispute resolution design mechanisms based on investment treaties and foreign investment contracts; and 3) the international financial and monetary governance system, including the basic jurisdictional competences of the global lending institutions (e.g. the International Monetary Fund, the Paris Club, the London Club, the World Bank, regional development banks). Issues of State development, sovereignty over economic regulation and natural resources, and the challenging implementation of economic, social and cultural rights in global economic transactions will also be explored within each of the three specialized treaty regimes. Students will also be introduced to fundamental principles and processes of international dispute settlement, as they apply to cross-border international economic transactions. 

An honors program for students who prepare for and compete in national advocacy. Travel/Registration Fees required. (B) Black Law Students Association; (C) Client Counseling; (D) Hispanic Bar Association; (E) Environmental Law; (H) Native American; (J) Jessup International; (K) International Environmental Law; (M) Intellectual Property; (N) Labor; (O) Other. Repeatable one time. CR/NC only. Pre: selection by competition.

This course will teach students how to engage in the United Nations Charter-based human rights mechanism or treaty-based mechanism in cooperation with the international or domestic human rights organizations. The course provides students with an opportunity to develop skills for legal consultancy, advocacy, international litigation, and/or other legal practice for promoting and protecting human rights. The course consists of seminars on selected aspects of international human rights norms, institutions, and legal skills for fact-finding, evidence gathering, interviewing, campaigning, and reporting, which will be combined with targeted activities for international human rights advocacy. Students will choose the topic of his or her activities for the semester in consultation with the professor, and each enrolled student will join a group with similar issue areas approved by the professor.

An examination of the evolving process of formulating rules to govern the transnational problems requiring global solutions. After looking at the United Nations and other international and regional organizations, students focus on: (a) the Law of the Sea negotiations, (b) the laws of war, (c) human rights, and (d) economic problems. Students examine both the substantive content of the current rules and the procedures by which they are being developed. Finally, the course examines the enforcement mechanisms and ways in which international law can be used in the courts of the United States.

Examination of legal issues that affect ocean resources. This course focuses on governance of living and non-living resources, environmental protection, and boundary delimitation.

A primer on the impact of the development and use of new technologies on global business and social culture. E-commerce, telecommunications, information technology, government regulation, and social policy have all been brought together by the use of the internet. The revolutionary medium of the internet has required legal practitioners to reassess the applicability of current laws and policies that protect and govern members of the global community. Explores the legal implications of the new global economy, copyright law in cyberspace, e-commerce, privacy, security, trademarks, domain names, tort liability, criminal activity, regulation in cyberspace, speech, and social and ethical issues.

January term provides students the opportunity to explore important contemporary legal topics with national and international experts.

J-Term Spring 2014: This course is designed to teach students the fundamental doctrines of refugee and asylum law—i.e. the way nation-states receive and care for innocent victims of larger man-made or natural disasters that cause millions of people to seek refuge in other states.  The course will introduce students to basic concepts in Humanitarian law, Public International Law, and the Law of Human Rights.  Students will also be exposed to contemporary issues of governance through studying the work of international institutions such as the U.N.H.C.R. and non-governmental humanitarian/relief organizations that have made a transition from crisis management to longer-term community development and social empowerment.  While not absolutely required, it is helpful for students to have taken at least an introductory course in Public International Law, International Human Rights Law or Immigration Law, or exposure to upper-level courses in International Politics at the undergraduate level.

January term provides students the opportunity to explore contemporary legal topics with national and international experts. (B) alternative dispute resolution; (C) rule of law; (D) law practice; (E) diversity; (F) access to justice; (G) public law; (H) legal theory; (I) legal practice; (J) rights. Repeatable five times. (Once a year)

January term provides students the opportunity to explore important contemporary legal topics with national and international experts.

January term provides students the opportunity to explore important contemporary legal topics with national and international experts.

An honors program for students who prepare for and compete in national advocacy. Travel/Registration Fees required. (B) Black Law Students Association; (C) Client Counseling; (D) Hispanic Bar Association; (E) Environmental Law; (H) Native American; (J) Jessup International; (K) International Environmental Law; (M) Intellectual Property; (N) Labor; (O) Other. Repeatable one time. CR/NC only. Pre: selection by competition.ion.

This course covers the employment relationship in all its forms and the legal rights and duties which arise under both common law and statutory sources. In this non-unionized setting the employers’ rules dominate except as may be limited by statutes or common law contract or tort law. A systematic analysis of those rights and duties are discussed within the context of modern human resource management, covering workers first as an applicant through recruitment, then as an employee entitled to certain rights and benefits of employment, and finally in terms of termination. Course materials focus on the practical application of labor and employment law.

An honors program for students who prepare for and compete in national advocacy. Travel/Registration Fees required. (B) Black Law Students Association; (C) Client Counseling; (D) Hispanic Bar Association; (E) Environmental Law; (H) Native American; (J) Jessup International; (K) International Environmental Law; (M) Intellectual Property; (N) Labor; (O) Other. Repeatable one time. CR/NC only. Pre: selection by competition.

This course is intended to provide students with an overview of the historical foundations of Chinese law as well as an introduction to the present legal system in the People's Republic of China. The first part of the course will survey classical legal theory, the administration of justice during the Qing dynasty and late Qing-Republican legal reforms. The second part will analyze the development of current PRC legal institutions (including the role of the judiciary and legal professionals) and then focus on key areas of recent PRC legislation: dispute resolution, the criminal process, family law and the status of women, and political rights. As a conclusion, comparisons will be drawn with the legal systems in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore--what is uniquely Chinese about their development?

Approaches psychology as a problem solving tool that can facilitate legal analysis. Covers a variety of areas including jury decision-making, research methodology, social cognition, culture, and behavioral economics, among others. (Once a year)

This course is an interdisciplinary seminar that explores the pedagogy and theory of teaching law well.  Students use the assignments in Legal Practice I and Legal Practice II, respectively, and additional readings to discover and deliver a range of techniques for teaching writing, using writing to teach, and citing authority appropriately.  Professor permission required.

Intensive writing that satisfies the law school’s upper division writing requirement and results in advanced law paper of publishable quality, extending over two consecutive semesters of study. Repeatable up to 4 credits. LAW majors only. A-F only.